1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and system for authenticating software, and more particularly, a method and system for using the software on an authenticated mobile terminal through the authentication process when using the software downloaded from a server in a mobile terminal.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Up to now, even an unauthorized mobile terminal can freely download and use a software, which was developed after extensive time and effort, and duplicate the downloaded software to another mobile terminal. Also, since the duplication without permission results in copyright infringement, litigation is quite possible to prevent it from continuing.
Especially, various wireless Internet contents have been developed along with the wide use of mobile terminal; however, the technical solutions for protecting copyrights of software for a mobile terminal are wholly lacking.
Also, the mobile terminal is quite different in performance and capacity compared with a conventional computer such as a PC (personal computer). Namely, the software for a mobile terminal (hereinafter ‘mobile software’) can be distinguished from the software for a conventional computer with regard to the small data size due to the limited memory capacity and the CPU performance of the mobile terminal.
Thus, an authentication method compatible with the characteristics of the mobile software is possible, however, no authentication method has yet to be developed. Also, the mobile software would be uploaded to a server and then downloaded to a mobile terminal even in the course of development due to the characteristics of the mobile terminal.
Still a high possibility exists that the mobile software under development might be duplicated and exploited by a competitor. Thus, there is a need for an authentication method to protect the mobile software from being duplicated without permission.